


Disillusioned

by sweet_arsenic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Drama, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance, bec that's how I roll, just Lance and Keith being boyfriends, with a tinge of sadness to it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 03:01:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16845835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweet_arsenic/pseuds/sweet_arsenic
Summary: Keith's violet eyes burst open and he gasps awake. Once it lands on Lance, a grin stretches on his face and he runs towards him.Cold. This Keith is always cold. It's like the world trying to remind him it was all just machines and technology working. But he melts into a hug anyway, holding the other paladin like his life depended on it.“I've missed you.”“You came back,” Keith says in disbelief, burying his face into Lance's chest.It left a sting in his chest, a reminder that Keith's world revolved around him now. This Keith had no one else to turn to.“Always,” Lance whispers into Keith's hair.





	Disillusioned

**Author's Note:**

> I rewatched episode one and I just couldn't help but incorporate the idea of Alfor saving his being in a memory chip into this klance fic so enjoy

“Don't go in there, Lance.”

Pidge stands outside the entrance, staring coldly at him.

They both face the massive doors leading to a private chamber. Around them, the sound of the castle rumbles. Miles and miles of tiny machinery run throughout the place, all designed by the Holts themselves.

“I have to,” Lance insists. “It's been too long.”

She  _ knows _ . She knows of his dark secret, one he has been to guilty to admit to anyone. She was the one who designed the chamber, after all

“Let me through,” he orders instead. He outranked her, so she had no choice. Being the Black Paladin has its perks.

The Green Paladin silently steps aside and raises her arm, fiddling with a device on her wrist. Soon, the door gives a loud creak and opens.

“Don't take too long,” Pidge advises. But he is already too far ahead to hear it.

Once the doors come to a close behind him, the chamber whirs into life. Lights turn on and illuminate the place in a deep blue glow. Upon stepping into the platform, the device in the center begins to glow.

Within seconds, the holographic image solidifies and there is Keith.

Lance is always taken aback by how young he looks. Whereas he is older, gruffer, somewhat somber, Keith remained youthful, as if it was only yesterday they discovered the Blue Lion together on Earth and were taken on the adventure of a lifetime.

He is twenty-eight now. It is hard to think about the war when it happened a lifetime ago. Sometimes, in his dreams (and he rarely dreams anymore), he imagines what Keith might have looked like in his age. He dreams of a deep voice and long, raven hair. But, by the time he wakes up, the image is all gone.

Keith's violet eyes burst open and he gasps awake. Once it lands on Lance, a grin stretches on his face and he runs towards him.

Cold. This Keith is always cold. It's like the world trying to remind him it was all just machines and technology working. But he melts into a hug anyway, holding the other paladin like his life depended on it.

“I've missed you.”

“You came back,” Keith says in disbelief, burying his face into Lance's chest.

It left a sting in his chest, a reminder that Keith's world revolved around him now. This Keith had no one else to turn to.

“Always,” Lance whispers into Keith's hair.

 

* * *

He remembers the first time he brought it up to Pidge. It was the same concept with Alfor’s hologram. All memories stored into the castle, growing and changing as the real person might. Creating new memories as the technology interacts with others over time.

“That… that kinda tech is advanced.” Pidge mulls it over for a while. “But not entirely impossible to recreate.”

They spent years replicating the Altean tech, keeping tight-lipped about their project from the others.

The first time he sees Keith again after years of silence,  he cries. The night is spent with the fake Keith cradling him until he stops.

 

* * *

“I brought your favorite.” Lance produces a package behind him and lays it down on the floor. Keith smiles in thanks and opens the container, but makes no motion to pick it up. Instead, only Lance eats. He munches down on the Galran food he knew Keith has grown fond of during his time with the Blade. The hard, spicy little sticks of meat delighted the paladin every time he brought them over, even if Keith couldn't eat them.

“Tell me about your day,” Keith says instead, laying his head on Lance's lap.

Lance sighs in content and obliges.

 

* * *

Pidge says she never uses the chamber. She once joked about it being too creepy, but those jokes soon died down.

Once, she confessed about activating it.

“I just stood there… and he appeared,” she said in between sobs. “I couldn't take it. I wasn't ready to see him again. So I just turned it off.”

Keith had been visibly distraught after that encounter. He was solemn and asked about Pidge and Hunk and Shiro and all the others more than usual. By the end of the night, Lance's heart ached as he inevitably turned the chamber off and stepped outside.

 

* * *

Keith's joyous laughter fills the chamber as Lance recounts a story of how Shiro lost his arm the other day. He told it full of funny facial expressions and wild hand gestures, as if he was on a show. He hardly had the chance to goof off anymore. It’s nice how he could still do it with Keith, who didn't expect him to act like the great, expressionless leader everyone else now did.

The former Black Paladin swats him playfully on the shoulder, trying and failing to hold back his laughs. "God, that story is so  _ stupid! _ " he exclaims "It was right there!"

"I know right," Lance replies, taking another piece of the Galran delicacy and popping it into his mouth. 

He lives for these little moments with Keith now. It has become an addiction.  Whenever he is out, it is all he could think about. Keith has become the one constant thought in his head.

Pidge tells him it's getting unhealthy, that maybe he should let go. And he has thought about it once or twice before, pulling the plug. Letting Keith go and leaving himself to finally mourn in silence after all these years.

But, all he could think then was the sound of Keith's laughter and the feel of his skin, and he knew he couldn't do it. He couldn't let go, even if it is all fake. He is convinced it is the only thing keeping him sane.

Keith shifts into a more comfortable position on his lap, and all he could do is think about Pidge's proposition. She wants to pull the plug on the thing. It's long overdue, according to her. It was an experiment and it passed and now they have to move on.

But he looks into Keith's eyes and knows it just isn't going to happen.

 

* * *

 

 

He told Keith about it before. How he saw him die.

It was a cold night and they were huddled together. Keith didn't get cold anymore, but he still embraced Lance like he did.

The night Lance told him how he died was also the night he first said 'I love you'.

He remembered holding a saddened Keith, rocking back and forth as he soothingly whispered promises into his ear. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. I _promise_."

 

* * *

The night ends too soon. He knows when he has to eventually leave, and it leaves stitches on his heart.

Before they part, Keith pulls him in one last time and breathily whispers his name with reverence he hasn't heard from anyone else. "Come back soon."

"I will, I promise."

Just like that, he shuts the mechanism and the machines wires down. Keith closes his eyes and his form shatters into pieces before vanishing all together. It's always sad watching him go, as if it was _that_ time all over again. But he _knows_ this Keith won't go anywhere. He'll make sure of it.

The castle is empty and dark as he walks through it. Hardly anybody is up at this time, after all. Once he turns the corner to his bedroom chambers, though, he is greeted with the sight of a frantic-looking Shiro outside his door.

"Something wrong?" Lance clears his throat.

"Paladin," Shiro addresses him formally, getting on his feet and bowing. Lance winces and gestures for him to get back up as soon as possible. Until now, the bowing is something he couldn't get used to.

"What is it?"

The man just looks speechless for the longest time, staring at his feet with widened eyes as if he had just seen a ghost.

"It's Keith," he says, out of breath "He came back."

**Author's Note:**

> Ready for part two?
> 
> Come yell at me on [Tumblr](https://omegakeith.tumblr.com/)


End file.
